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In Brief: ACT-IAC CX Summit 2020

Date:

By Ben Leffler

Why government agencies are doubling down on better customer experiences

Customer experience (CX) is spurring a tectonic change in government. The needs and wants of citizens are taking center stage like never before. Public services are shifting from purely functional to designed-for-ease. Like many things in government, the change is happening gradually — but deliberately.

We heard that loud and clear during the American Council for Technology -Industry Advisory Council (ACT-IAC)’s CX Summit 2020. The CX pioneers of government shared what’s working, what still needs fixing, and what’s on the horizon. Here are our key takeaways from this year’s event:

CX is not a passing trend

If you think CX is the latest shiny object, think again.

“It wasn’t very long ago that cybersecurity was an afterthought — and that was too late,” said Margie Graves, the former Deputy Chief Information Officer for the Department of Homeland Security, during a session about how government leaders can break down silos.

Now, IT security and compliance are being considered earlier in the process of building digital services. And the same should be true for optimizing the experiences people have with those services.

“[Government employees] should be asking themselves how their customers will interact with the process at every step,” Graves said.

That’s been the case at the Internal Revenue System (IRS), where increasingly, employees are thinking about how taxpayers interact with their agency.

“Government employees should be asking themselves how their customers will interact with the process at every step.”

“We have to put ourselves in your [the public’s] shoes,” said Andrew Chiu, Director of Product Management and User Experience Design for the IRS. “That means being digital-first, mobile-friendly, and always accessible — from the couch to your commute.”

Similarly, the U.S. Census Bureau refined its messaging through A/B testing to deliver relevant, localized content that increased 2020 census participation in targeted communities.

Constantly collecting customer sentiment at the point of service powers great CX — it can literally be a lifesaver.

NWOW is driving CX

Government employees have had to roll with remote working, just like the rest of us. That’s forcing many agencies to rethink how they empower their employees to deliver public services.

As employees juggle home life with work, it’s abundantly clear that back-to-back Zoom meetings and endless emails are not the way to go. That’s according to Nina Bianchi, Chief of People & Culture for the IT Modernization Centers of Excellence.

“I find it ironic that this year, 2020, also means clear vision. A lot of these challenges have risen to the top with such clarity that we can’t ignore them,” said Bianchi, who also works with the General Services Administration (GSA) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

Naturally, happier employees make for better customer service. And remote work is forcing agencies to optimize processes and adopt digital efficiencies as a matter of necessity. In that way, COVID-19 is accelerating CX.

Bianchi encouraged government leaders to “stay nimble” as they rethink how time should be spent and managed. And because the government loves a good acronym, one has already been coined: It’s the NWOW (New Way of Working).

“I find it ironic that this year, 2020, also means clear vision. A lot of these challenges have risen to the top with such clarity that we can’t ignore them.”

It all comes down to empathy

At its core, CX is about putting yourself in the customers’ shoes. That’s a big, but necessary, mindshift for government leaders. And it was the overarching message we heard this year.

“It’s not about the CIO, it’s about the customer,” said Maria Roat, Deputy Federal CIO for the Office of Management and Budget. “We have to understand our customers’ journey. And we have to make it simpler and easier to complete that journey.”

She pointed to the Technology Modernization Fund (TMF) as a way to help improve CX in government. The TMF lets agencies sustain their legacy systems while they modernize them, or build entirely new ones, she said.

“We’re seeing success with that across the board,” she said. “We’ve got to continue to push that across the federal government.”

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Before CX was a thing, we were passionate about the human impact of every project and product. Get in touch with us to talk about creating government digital services that build public trust.